You know how some things you hear or read stick with you long after? Well, this quote has stuck with me ever since I tore it out of a daily calendar years ago. I found it again, one of those treasures you find when cleaning out paper. It was before the holidays, and the words have been floating through my mind almost daily since. I’m working on it, and thought you might want to, too.
“Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.”
What is puzzling is the word ‘hard.’ I remembered this quote without that word. Over the years when I’ve said it to myself, the sentence always ended with ‘listen.’ As I write this message to you, I’ve thought of removing ‘hard,’ but then it hit me that ‘hard’ may be the key ingredient.
It’s hard to listen ‘hard.’ To pay full attention. To be truly intentional about listening. That’s the point. It’s not superficial. It’s not listening while doing something else. It’s not writing in my journal what I’m thinking without listening. If that were enough, this encouraging statement would not be bugging me to pay attention to it. There must be more. A message meant for me — my inner voice trying to tell me something.
My theme for 2018 is to be intentional. This is a good place to practice. Quiet my mind. Go within. Ask for guidance. Listen. Intentionally. A few minutes a day. I expect it’s like exercise. Hard to start but, once started, not hard to keep going. The key is to be intentional about starting. I’m sure like a muscle, it will strengthen with regular use.
No one else has my inner voice (or yours). I can’t wait to hear what wants to be heard.
